After dropping the 10% signatures requirred to run as regional director I thought we would have a better showing. Only 4 contested regions. It looks like there will be a big turnover with the next BOD. At least 4 directors chose not to run this year.

I believe that the affected candidates will bring this up at the BOD meeting in August if not sooner. I would have to read the By-Laws section that deals with this in order to be able to answer it myself. If you care to, do call USPA HQ and ask Clint Vincent about it.

No, the upcoming election is for 2013-2015 which is the first three year term allowed by a vote of the association's membership at the last general membership meeting (in which a proxy vote was allowed to meet the requirements of at least 10% of the membership voting).

I believe that the affected candidates will bring this up at the BOD meeting in August if not sooner. I would have to read the By-Laws section that deals with this in order to be able to answer it myself. If you care to, do call USPA HQ and ask Clint Vincent about it.

I submitted a letter of intent to run as a National Director this year but was informed that I did not meet the continuous membership requirement.

In order to be eligible for the ballot, you need to have been a member of USPA for at least a year prior to submission date. It used to state in the Governance Manual, "one year", but was recently changed to "As of January 1st of the prior year".

My membership expired December 31st, 2010 while I was home in Boston over the holidays. I was on the road alot during that period, and when I returned to Deland and got my mail, I sent my renewal in on January 10th, 2011, so technically I was not a member of USPA for 11 days, hence my ineligibility.

As it was explained to me, the rule of "one year" is meant to ensure two things, 1) that a new member spends a year getting to know the USPA process as a member before running for office (ie, gets some experience as a skydiver and memeber, and 2) to prevent a take over persay, like if say a bunch of new members decided to join USPA simply to change a rule by over taking the ballot or something.

I agree with both theories in principle.

Under the old Governance Manual statement of "one year", I would have qualified for the ballot. Under the new change to "as of January 1st", I do not qualify.

For the record, I don't blame USPA, the BOD, or the new rule. It is what it is.......lol.

I have spent 6 years traveling out of Florida and between the travel and having my mail forwarded, I didn't get my renewal in before 12/31/10. My fault, 100%.

I am happy ether way, to be on the ballot or not, I'm just disappointed that I won't be able to run at a time in my skydiving career where I feel I am at the best place to be able to help the membership:

- I have been (still am) in a four year airport access process in NH working with the FAA at every level directly including with, (until unfortunately resigned) Chief Administrator Randy Babbitt.

- During that process however I did manage to open a different DZ in Massachusetts in the interim, and while it would have been easier to say "tandems only", insisted on being able to offer fun jumpers a place to jump.

- Carried the USPA flag in my back pack 72 miles round trip to Everest Base Camp and back in 2010 to take a picture with it at 18450ft MSL underneath Mount Everest.

- Was planning on helping Doc Lee transition the role in F&B committee to a point where someday he may actually be able to retire from the job.

And so on and so on......lol.

Sorry of that sounded like the start of a campaign speech.....lol

Long story short, having only narrowly missed earning a seat on the board last election and with the additional experience I gained since then, I thought I had a fair chance of earning a seat on the board in this election.

That said, I think the names on the ballot are all excellent choices and individuals that will continue to serve the membership's best interests and lead us into the next three years successfully.

In order to be eligible for the ballot, you need to have been a member of USPA for at least a year prior to submission date. It used to state in the Governance Manual, "one year", but was recently changed to "As of January 1st of the prior year".

Seems like you ought to be able to petition the board for an exception to that rule in your case, given as how you've been around the sport long enough to satisfy the intent of the rule.

Well the problem is, he is not the only one who fell victim to this new rule change.

Apparently one current BOD member missed the deadline by 10 hours.

Not the deadline to submit his Letter of Intent, but the turn around on his membership put him out of membership for 10 hours sometime toward the end of February.

My poor understanding of the rule is that the 1 year thing has been a requirement for some time. Someone at Headquarters this year took the decision to enforce it to the letter this year. It seems to me that some sort of announcement would have been in order. A little bit of the tail wagging the dog it seems to me.

That said, I should add a disclaimer that I don't really know what I'm talking about. Just what I think I know.